I can confirm all of these except for number 5, which is ...not exactly wrong, but not strictly true. They do hire teachers who aren't like 100% European-descent. But I've never encountered a black or asian or high % native american or anyone like that. Something else along these lines, though, is that they also only want American accents. It isn't the management so much as some of the parents. They flipped out over this one English teacher's accent. He got screwed, as they cut all his hours, and he was under a variable-rate contract with pay per class. If you don't have an American-enough accent they may not want you, and they may dump you.

I worked there for a year. The entire time they said they would get me a Z visa, but only ever did Fs. Their teachers started encountering trouble getting even F visas MONTHS before the April immigration crackdown, and they did nothing about it. They had at least 4 months warning that the F visa thing wasn't going to be tolerated anymore. They got fucking RAIDED BY THE POLICE at least twice, and had a token sacrificial deportation. During the crackdown, rumor had it there was another guy deported; but rumor also had it he was a dirtbag.

The variable-pay contract thing is true. If you have 25 hours a week, 5-10 of those will be demos. They have had several versions of the variable-pay contracts. They lowered the rate in the later versions, and then retroactively applied the new rate to people on the earlier contract. Given that contracts without legal visas are (according to a recent court case) legally unenforceable, what are you gonna do? They also changed the definition of a class hour when it comes to demos, counting all demos at the same (low) length of time, regardless how long you actually spend on them. Since the definition of a class hour was not rigidly defined in the contracts, they're perfectly free to change the game in other ways, and given they had a history of doing that, I wouldn't put it past them.

They wanted me to renew with them under the new contract. This was after I spent an hour and a half lecturing Larry, the VP in charge of HR at the time, and the new HR ladies (HR has a lot of turnover there) about my grievances and those of other FTs (and some of the CTs). They kept insisting "but you'll get one thousand more!" without specifying more than WHAT. I believe it was that I'd be getting 1000 more than a new teacher, which based on what the teachers I knew under the new contract were making, would still have been a pay cut. I'm not staying on with a company that's lied to me continually for a year and taking a pay cut for the privilege. If I'm taking a pay cut, I'm going to go somewhere better.

We had 4 foreign teachers quit in the span of a month, and this was in the middle of a slow trickle of resignations. Some people bitched that all they cared about was money. But at least one guy was going back to the US with medical problems and no insurance, and two went to other schools for lower pay.

The guy who harmed someone in a classroom was drunk, and he picked up a student, and dropped her on her head. She had a throwing-up-go-to-the-fucking-hospital concussion. Smart guy, cognitively; dumb as shit behaviorally.

Something only tangentially related to the position per se, but indicative of the kind of corporate culture that Best Learning has: The principal of my school poached all the best sales prospects from the sales staff, taking the sales commissions for herself. Meanwhile, she was Glengarry/Glenn Rossing the sales staff monthly, whoever sold the least got fired. We lost a lot of good sales staff that way, and those who were left were the ones willing to do things that caused disruption to classes: placing students in classes they couldn't handle, bringing demo kids in to sit in on classes unannounced, things like that. Anyhow, she DID eventually get fired for it, so there's that.

The school I work at now, Maxen Education, hasn't had anyone quit in the middle of a contract since I've been here. Meanwhile, two of my former Best Learning coworkers are here with me, and at least one more is across the street at another school, and from what I hear the turnover continues pretty quick at Best Learning.

I feel kind of guilty for not posting about this sooner.

Here's a test to find out if a school is going to screw you on the visa: In the interview, intimate that you do not have a college degree, or are under age 24, or don't have any work experience...anything that would disqualify you from getting a Z visa. Ask if they can still get you a visa. Some schools who DO get all qualified teachers Z visas don't actually care about your qualifications if you come with your own visa, so that's the telling question. If they say YES, without asking YOU any additional questions, then they will not get you a Z visa; you will be working illegally.